Tag King Arthur

Section of NC Wyeth painting showing King Arthur wearing armour, a red cape, and a crown.

High School Summer Reading List: King Arthur

Julia M Leave a comment
Section of NC Wyeth painting showing King Arthur with a

by Julia M.

Each year, HCLS and HCPSS work together to compile suggested reading lists for all ages. This year’s high school reading list is brimming with exciting titles published within the past few years, in dozens of different genres ranging from nonfiction memoirs by immigrant teens to adorable love stories centered on baked goods. Two of my favorite standout reads from this year’s list happen to share a common theme: both feature references to King Arthur that any Arthurian-legend-loving reader will happily devour.

A Black woman with natural hair holds her arms apart in front her her with red glowing around the top and a blue around the bottom, against a dark background.

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn has become beloved by many YA fantasy readers since its publication in 2020. The story follows Bree, a 16-year-old who enters a pre-college program at UNC with hopes of escaping from her hometown for the summer following her mother’s tragic death. Her world is upended when she is thrust into the secret world of people who call themselves Legendborn—the descendants of King Arthur, preparing for war against the demonic forces that oppose them. This book is for lovers of complex magic systems, emotionally driven romantic subplots, and a solid dose of high-action fight scenes. Readers who enjoyed the deep-rooted Arthurian references in The Lost Years (of Merlin) or the magical aura of The Raven Boys will love Legendborn. (Longer review also available.)

You can borrow it in print, e-book, and e-audiobook.

Gwen and Art are Not in Love by Lex Croucher is a new addition to the YA Arthurian-legend-canon. This book is rife with references to the legends, but with a lighthearted twist. Gwen and Art follows the title characters through an alternate-timeline historical rom-com that takes place several generations after the death of King Arthur. The two main characters are forced into an arranged betrothal but have zero interest in each other. Through a series of mishaps and a little forbidden-diary-reading, Gwen and Art realize that they are a perfectly unsuited match. They make a pact to cover up for one another as Gwen pines after a lady knight and Art kisses every boy he fancies. Readers will be drawn in by the bubbly humor, fast-paced tournament scenes, and the sweet found family that develops. If you love the joyful queer romance in Heartstopper or the feminist twists of the Song of the Lioness quartet, check out Gwen and Art are Not in Love. 

You can borrow it in print, e-book, and e-audiobook. 

A mostly pink cover with the title in large red block lettering, and floral illustration around the G and A. Four people in medieval clothing cluster at the bottom.

Julia is a Teen Instructor & Research Specialist at the Glenwood Branch + Makerspace. She loves reading YA books, playing the cello, practicing martial arts, trying new cookie recipes, and generally trying to squeeze as many hobbies into a day as possible.

A Black woman with natural hair holds her arms apart in front her her with red glowing around the top and a blue around the bottom, against a dark background.

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

sahanacallahan 2 Comments
A Black woman with natural hair holds her arms apart in front her her with red glowing around the top and a blue around the bottom, against a dark background.

King Arthur isn’t dead. The Round Table yet survives.  

Only… it looks a little different. In the place of mail and armor, you have sixteen-year-olds with unbelievable strength and speed. Merlin’s around too, but he’s a college student and “Merlin” is merely a title. And somehow, wonder of all wonders, the seat of all this ancient power is in Chapel Hill, NC.

That’s not the only fantastical thing, though, in Legendborn by Tracy Deonn. There are centuries of lore, of demons and Shadowborn, all hiding under a thinly veiled surface of messy college kid drama. They surround the Onceborn (read: all of us), who live blissfully ignorant lives, worrying about normal things, like getting busted going off campus or figuring out who is headed to the party tonight.  

And Bree, our protagonist, doesn’t know about any of the secrets of the Round Table when she applies to the University of North Carolina’s Early College program with her best friend Alice. She doesn’t expect to be caught up in an Arthurian world of magic and lore, and she definitely doesn’t expect that applying to go to the same school her mother attended would cause so much personal tragedy. Still reeling from the trauma of losing her mother, trying to establish some sense of normalcy, and looking for the truth about the suspicious circumstances of her mother’s death, Bree throws herself headlong into this Arthurian world, making friends and enemies along the way.  

Cool, right? It’s everything I want from my YA novels, hearkening back to the good ole days of 2014, when the trilogy ruled the YA realm with works like Divergent or Matched. But now, we get far more in-depth lore, speaking more candidly (and less stereotypically) about mental health, and a whole lot more diversity of character. Bree’s experience at UNC is profoundly shaped by being Black. It’s a reality that so many BIPOC students face that has only recently been put to pen, and a reality that author Tracy Deonn knows intimately, having gone to UNC herself.  

The coolest part is one I won’t spoil for you, but there is a very fun other magic in this book too, so if you like King Arthur and his knights, but it’s not enough to sway you, there’s a whole lot more to the magic of this world, and Bree discovers all of the secrets and implications in due course.  

It’s a brick of a book, but it flies by. The themes in this book of being Black, the unquestioned queerness among her friends and peers, and the honest discussions of grief and the trauma that results make for a real and grounded force within this novel that is otherwise so perfectly fantastical. I can’t wait to get my hands on the second one. In this series – here’s hoping for a trilogy.  

You can get Legendborn by Tracy Deonn in print, audiobook, eBook, and eAudiobook.